"Metabolic damage" after cutting weight.

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Before correcting me about the term “Metabolic Damage”, I know it’s all a proccess of adaptaions but I steel feel like it is damage and in this post I will share why. I am a person with a HUGE appetite and right now I need to lose 12 kgs (already lost 12 from 112 and went to 100, next goal is 88) and my TDEE is 3000~ calories, right now at 2500 I am cutting weight in a good manner, however what scares me is the fact that at some point 2500 calories won’t be enough of a deficit to keep losing weight at a good rate and later would be my maintenance. I cannot imagine eating only that amount with the training I do. While I am cutting I am miraculously proggressing my training even though I am a late intermediate lifter.

What are some good strategies to avoid having such drastic adaptations (damage for me) so I won’t have to basically starve to death to reach my goal? Is there any way to Increase my maintenance calories after the cut without adding anymore exercise purely by dieting manipulation?

2

A few thoughts here:

  1. Your training probably costs about 1/4 of what you think it does from a calorie standpoint. Really. It’s not a huge source of caloric expenditure, in general.
  2. Gaining LBM would be a great way to keep TDEE relatively high.
  3. Appetite will likely fluctuate based on tons of things, biological and non-biological alike. Long-term, having a dietary pattern and a system of checks and balances to make sure you’re adherent is key.
  4. Realistically, you could eat < 800kCal/day and not starve. That said, your TDEE is going to go down as you lose weight. It doesn’t happen linearly and there’s a wide range of interindividual variation. I wouldn’t worry about it, man.

-Jordan

3

That is good to hear, lately I added daily walking or running 2/7 days a week with a goal of burning 500 extra calories during this activity. Right now my my proggress feels good but it is due to daily walking which I am not a huge fan of (guess might have to like it more) and later on walking the same distance with the same intensity will burn even less…

4

Again, I wouldn’t worry about this stuff NOW, as you don’t know how you’re going to respond. Take it one day at a time, dude.